Starck Contrasts

Jeff Starck

Jeff Starck, senior editor, world coins, has been a collector since childhood and a Coin World staff member since 2004. Jeff is the primary writer for the World Coins section in the monthly edition and is responsible for Coin World's coverage of world coins and weekly International page. Jeff is a contributor to Gold Coins of the World and the “Red Book” for Canadian coins.

Fiasco erupts over the 1965 Canadian annual set

What happens when a Mint’s only product for the year sells out the first day it goes on sale?

Any collector remotely familiar with the Royal Canadian Mint’s current output of commemorative coins, which on a monthly basis alone seems to eclipse the Gross Domestic Product of a Pacific Ocean island nation, might be hard-pressed to recall a time when the annual output was a simple set in plastic with one example of each denomination.

But that was the case in the 1960s, when a furor erupted over the 1965 Prooflike set.

In the fall of 1964, the RCM was clear: orders would be accepted beginning on Jan. 2, following the New Year’s Day holiday. Buyers could purchase up to five sets at $4 each (the set has a face value of $1.91.) Enough orders flooded the RCM that the initial maximum, two million sets, sold within just a few hours, despite a price tag that was $1 per set higher than the year before.

The Toronto Globe and Mail called it “the slaughter of the Royal Canadian Mint,” but noted that the storm was predictable after 1964, when the RCM halted orders for the annual set on April 30 amid strong demand. The RCM eventually produced some 1.6 million of the 1964 sets, compared to 18,000 sets sold six years earlier (1958).

Collectors who think gaming the system is a pox of modern coin sales need only witness this episode.

Dealers and collectors from across the U.S. and Canada flooded Ottawa via plane, bus or car with multiple orders, bound for the post office nearest the Mint.

Demand was so great it forced the RCM to order high-speed presses, but those would take six months to arrive. In the interim, the RCM grabbed a bit more than 10 pounds of orders from each bag of mail that poured in that first day, estimating how many mailpieces it would take to meet the limit. Temporary workers were hired to process the orders, and orders not set aside were sent back immediately.

Finally, on April 29, Canada’s finance minister announced that sales would resume immediately, limited to either one, three or five sets per individual.

Coin World reported at the time that sets in the market were selling for $5, not much of a premium considering the lengths some hobbyists went to obtain them.

This time, the Mint promised to fill all orders, even if it took into 1966.

All told, the RCM sold 2,904,352 of the 1965 Prooflike sets, making it the most common annual set in RCM history.

Each set contains 1.109 ounces of silver, in the 10-cent, 25-cent, 50-cent and dollar coins included in the set (the cent and 5-cent coins are base metal), and online auction sales suggest the set is valued at about $22 to $25, or not much more than its silver value.

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The 1965 proof-like sets are one of the best ways to purchase a set of coins of very high quality and condition as near to the spot price of silver as you can get. Great deal for the collector and investor.